


Frankly

by CherrieBluez



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Humor, Love Confessions, Romance, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 17:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14477904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherrieBluez/pseuds/CherrieBluez
Summary: Emma dodges death, again. So Regina is sweet and brave.Set sometime after season 6.





	Frankly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jle1993](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jle1993/gifts).



 

When Emma awoke she took a moment to blink away the bizarre sensation of being submerged in mildly chilly lake water, while air bubbles whooshed from her mouth and nose. It was an oddly specific and ticklish experience.

 

...That had happened, hadn't it.

 

In the next moment there were hands on her face, warm, soothing and happening right now. A series of strokes and murmurs were coaxing Emma to focus. So she did. With a hard blink Emma shook herself alert, while trying, and ultimately being aided into a sitting position by those same warm hands.

 

"Emma," They were Regina's hands. Glowing with little licks of fire in each palm, positively toasty to the touch. "You're cold."

 

"You're..." Emma tried, but was accosted by an unreasonable dizziness that had her tipping forwards, landing her chin on a quick palm which held her gently upright. A little finger softly brushing her neck. "Like warm soup." Emma breathed.

 

"Poetic," Regina was smiling, Emma could hear it, though she kept her eyes shut, mulling over the idea of dipping fresh bread into some hot soup Regina would helpfully cup in her hands, keeping it warm with her fire, or instead maybe falling unconscious again.

 

...weird decisions.

 

"I need you to look at me, Emma."

 

"Yes,"

 

"Open your eyes then."

 

"...in a minute,"

 

A sigh. Blown right into her face, Emma couldn't stop the smirk. Bracing with her arms firm and hands curled around the weathered edge of apparently her sofa, Emma pushed herself back, wincing with the sudden vertigo and squinting her eyes open one by one.

 

"Hi,"

 

A warm palm still glowing with magic had fallen to Emma's knee, while the other drifted over her right shoulder, back and forth over her bicep. The movement matching the unmasked concern glimmering deeply in dark eyes as Regina regarded her.

 

"How badly... has me skipping you across a lake hundreds of yards affected our friendship?"

 

Emma snorted, there Regina was; kneeling at Emma's feet looking frustrated with worry and cracking jokes. "Depends, how much of it was on purpose?"

 

"...maybe forty percent." Red lips formed a serious line, "it would have remained a firm zero, but by the fifth bounce-"

 

"You're hilarious, Madam Mayor." Regina shuffled closer, forcing a nice little space for herself between Emma's legs.

 

"...at least the other sixty percent was you saving my life." Emma finished, forgiving with a tired smile.

 

"Give or take."

 

The chill hadn't fully left her bones yet, and a shiver shook through Emma with a rather pathetic rattle of teeth. And there were Regina's hands again, ghosting magical heat over her cheek, and curiously, gliding back through her hair to hover carefully beneath the crown of her head.

 

"What're you doing?"

 

"You took a swipe to the head from a thirty foot tentacle, you don't remember?"

 

Emma blinked, then grimaced. "The size of those suckers... how could I forget."

 

"Indeed." Regina shared Emma's disgusted grunt with her own, before adding, "Zelena acquired an aquarium from God knows where and shrank the Kraken to a more 'child friendly' size for Robin. So, that's taken care of at least."

 

"Huh."

 

Emma nodded, though her eyes were glazing over already.

 

"Hey, where are you going?" Regina leant closer, until Emma could feel her firmly between her thighs. Regina's left arm supported her own weight on the sofa cushion while reaching further to sooth Emma's head with her right hand.

 

"Thought I'd take a drive," Emma's head lulled forward, very nearly colliding with Regina's own. "-operate some heavy machinery. Eat some churros."

 

Another sigh, blowing far closer than the first, "I'm serious Emma, as fascinating as I'm sure your delirious mind is, you have to stay awake with me."

 

"With you?"

 

"Yes."

 

"But, why?"

 

"Why what, Emma? -Open your eyes, please."

 

"I did already."

 

"Then stop closing them."

 

"I have to blink, lady! What, you want them to dry out, is that what you want?"

 

"The long stretches of time you have them closed would be considered sleeping, Emma. Which no, you can't do. So by all means dry them out!"

 

Emma relented, dropping her forehead to Regina's with a vengeful puff of air to her face. Hair fluttered about them, and Emma sat expectantly, awaiting another sigh or some kind of scolding witticism.

 

However, Regina instead sat incredibly still.

 

Barely a breath parted from her lips for some time, until her chest suddenly heaved desperately, leaving her gripping the blonde head to hers.

 

"...What're you doing?" Emma looked at her, green eyes finally clearing enough through the haze to recognise the oddness about them.

 

"Holding," it was said quietly, guarded and with care.

 

"Oh. ...are you alright?" Emma fiddled with the cuff of Regina's supporting arm, realising quite suddenly how Regina was practically draped over her at this point. It was probably Emma's position making it awkward, and she would move, but Regina was... actually upset.

 

"I was ready to rip it apart. Sever its limbs." Regina pulled back, and met Emma's eyes fiercely, "but then it just shot away - and you, it pulled you with it so fast - from nowhere! And my magic hit you instead of it..."

 

"That's... it's okay-"

 

"I haven't done that to you in years. I could've killed you." Regina's voice held darkness, but her eyes where pained and shining, "I thought I had."

 

Emma's brow lifted, baffled.

 

"Why would you think that? After having curses routinely thrown my way, you gotta realise by now it's not going to be magic that defeats me. It's going to be something embarrassingly mundane. ...like, hitting my head on an open cupboard and drowning in a bowl of jello."

 

"It's not about how it happens - although that was ridiculous and specific,- it's that it almost happened and I could've been responsible."

 

"You could've made the jello." Emma shrugged.

 

"Swan. Just...stop. Stop trying to downplay everything." Regina sat back on her heels, turning her face away as her eyes flicked about the room. "Don't belittle this."

 

Emma sighed, "I'm not. I don't mean to," She pulled herself forward, casting her eyes down to the rug beneath Regina's knees. "I just... feel that we've been through a crazy amount of stuff together. So, the idea that I'd hold this, an accident - a magical, misdirected murder wave - against you is, well, baloney."

 

Brown eyes narrowed in poorly concealed amusement. "That's the third time you've mentioned food, Emma. It's like you're alluding to something?"

 

Emma rolled her eyes, mainly at herself. She'd been a self confessed pit lately, and had been caught scoffing tangerines - of all things - just before the attack.

 

A silence stretched before them, and when Emma finally glanced up Regina was watching her. Amusement dimmed, though the warmth remained, even as she shook her head solemnly.

 

"You don't understand."

 

"No?"

 

Regina's jaw moved in such a way Emma instinctively knew she was twisting her tongue across teeth. Biting back her words as she slowly shook her head once more.

 

"So, explain it to me. Is it the magic? Or like before; fighting your inner darkness? Because after fighting a mythical monster intent on flash flooding the town, the desire to put it down was super warranted and mutual for everyone involved."

 

"It's not about any of that."

 

"No? Then what?"

 

"You..."

 

"What?"

 

"You- I - I'll.." Regina stood suddenly, snapping, "I'll get you a drink." And darted into the kitchen barefoot, leaving Emma to stare in bemusement at a pair of red stilettos tucked safely beneath the coffee table.

 

The room had grown dark, lit only by the soft glow of a corner lamp and the slightly harsher electric light illuminating from the kitchen, spilling through the hallway. The house was quiet and Emma briefly considered where the rest of her family were... yet found herself more bothered by the silence in her kitchen, and what it was she had failed to understand.

 

"Regina," She called, "...bear with my slowness here, I may be concussed so... I just need you to be blunt, or frank, brutally if need be. Brutal Frank, OK?"

 

Emma was startled by a chuckle in the doorway, Regina leant against the frame, clutching a glass of water and running her nails along the edge.

 

"I would," Regina husked, "but I barely understand, myself."

 

Emma threw herself back into the sofa, sighing loudly, "So we're doomed?"

 

Regina winced, passing over the glass and sitting upon the coffee table, directly opposite Emma. They were quiet again, and for a few moments brown eyes tracked the tip of the glass as Emma drank, teeth softly chewing on red lips. Once Emma leaned forward to place the glass on the table, Regina cleared her throat.

 

"I've learned something that may be very, life alteringly important. And I don't know what to do with the information."

 

"Okay?" Curiosity peaked, Emma sat up straight, wide eyes intent on understanding this time around.

 

Brown eyes flickered over green, contemplating Emma's open expression, until finally Regina inhaled deeply and slowly eased her hand into Emma's, hanging limply over a knee.

 

"Telling you will feel incredibly selfish,"

 

Emma found herself a little caught on the hand in hers. Starstruck almost. It just wasn't a closeness they'd shared - not one they'd ever offered the other. Nevertheless, Emma swallowed thickly and stroked a thumb over Regina's knuckles.

 

Encouraged, Regina shifted closer, and Emma wondered if this secret info pertained to something life threatening or... as intimate as Regina was making this feel.

 

"You're going through a lot right now, and I've noticed how everyone tends to put on you during those times-"

 

"Sod's law." Emma joked miserably.

 

"-Yes. And I don't want to be one of those people. I don't want to do that to you..."

 

"But?"

 

"...but, I think - I hope, this is something you'd want to know."

 

Emma sighed heavily at the woman before her. Regina was a serious minute away from tearing herself apart over this, she stiffened and the gentle tug let Emma know the brunette was fighting herself to stay there, open to Emma.

 

"Regina stop. Shit I'm going through is not something you have to worry about. I sure as hell appreciate it," Emma squeezed the hand in hers, "but it's not necessary, not right now. Not after endangering my life and saving my life and telling me I need to know something. Because this between us? This is the important, world saving, life giving shit right here. My separation bullshit shouldn't even be breathed in the same room right now. OK?" Emma squinted, rubbing her free hand over her forehead, laughing weakly, "Did that make any sense at all?"

 

"It did." Regina smile grew, yet wavered with her words. "However, I'm quite sure this will still complicate matters regarding your 'bullshit'."

 

"How'd you figure that?" Emma's hand slid off her face, green eyes suddenly captured within intense dark pools, full and sparkling with intent.

 

"May I try something?"

 

Not really expecting or needing a reply, the brunette lifted her own free hand to the back of Emma's head once again, but instead of the warm and healing hover of magic, the blonde felt an exciting thrum from fingers gently guiding her forward. It wasn't until Regina's nose brushed softly against her own that Emma startled, breath shuddering and eyes fluttering. And curiously something wild reared inside, made her pull on those soft fingers, daring Regina to finish this. Alter them, if she could.

 

Delicately, Regina tilted them, melted them both thoroughly with her lips, though all too quickly she pulled back due to the glowing smile on her face, keeping them apart.

 

Regina's teary eyes danced and she gasped a breath, holding close while she spoke, "I'm trying to be frank."

 

"Brutal," Emma whispered, dazed.

 

"You kissed me back." Regina's laugh trembled, her nerves officially shot.

 

"I did."

 

"Because it's the polite thing to do, or...?" Regina raised a brow, interestingly remaining close even when beginning to sound marginally displeased.

 

Emma cleared her throat, "Well, yes," She started, making a careful grab for both hands, fearing a slap. "But to be sure, let's try again?"

 

The hard glare building immediately softened in surprise, and breath hitched in both women as Regina was pulled, and moulded into Emma's lap.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (I originally tapped this out on my phone, and some auto-corrected sentences were just too golden to not share..)
> 
> The Officials were shot.   
> Regina raised a brownie.


End file.
